An Utterly Damning Report on Moreno-Ocampo

Following on the heels of the much-reported e-mail scandal, FICHL has released a policy brief entitled “A Prosecutor Falls, Time for the Court to Rise” that is an utterly damning indictment of Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s tenure at the ICC. Here is a taste of the report, which picks up not long after the Court became operative:

This idyllic mood in the OTP continued through the summer of 2003, as if “the Office was embraced by the human warmth and outstanding social skills of the Prosecutor”. Among the new staff then recruited was co-author William H. Wiley, the first investigator in the Office. The situation started to change in late September 2003. The Chef de cabinet sought to hire a fourth diplomat in the OTP from one of the two Governments that had enabled the election. The Prosecutor asked the Senior Legal Adviser to legitimize the appointment. When he gently referred to the importance of following the rules on recruitment, the Prosecutor shouted: “For you, I am the law!”. To facilitate the recruitment of the diplomat, the Prosecutor asked Wiley to find dirt on the stronger candidate, as his first “investigative task”.

The mask of power fell repeatedly during the autumn of 2003 and subsequent months. The practice of vigorous peer review of important draft motions and other documents – so carefully established in the OTP of the nearby International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia – was not followed. A culture was established whereby even working meetings were choreographed, to ensure that the Prosecutor and his favourites would not be contradicted – soon, no one dared to. A “sense of fear” and “intimidation” set in. The idea of ‘one Court’ was undervalued. Several government officials and leaders of non-governmental organizations knew about the problems already from late 2003 onwards. Within a few years, 22 of the top staff members in the OTP left. Among those who remained were colleagues who worked on cases that collapsed, were withdrawn, and postponed again and again.

A report condemning Moreno-Ocampo comes as no surprise: supporters and critics of the Court alike agree that he was a disastrous choice for the Court’s first Prosecutor. The authors of the report are surprising, however, because three of them are among the Court’s most important initial employees: William H. Wiley, mentioned above; Morten Bergsmo, who led the preparatory team for the OTP and was its first Senior Legal Adviser; and Sam Muller, who led the ICC’s Advance Team.  If they are not credible witnesses to what went on in the early days of the Court, no one is.

Kudos to the authors — which also include Wolfgang Kaleck, the Secretary-General of the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights — for their willingness to go public with their grievances and recollections. They do so, of course, because they are all committed to the long-term success of the Court. We can only hope the ICC is listening.